Judge Willliam J. Monahan has affirmed the temporary decision he issued earlier this year in the Superior Court of California, Santa Clara County. To that, he added a permanent injunction against the sale and support of Kaleidescape’s current DVD servers.

The far-reaching injunction touches not just Kaleidescape, but its agents, franchisees and “those acting in concert with them or at their direction,” all of which are “permanently restrained and enjoined from directly or indirectly making, having made, selling, offering to sell, marketing, importing or otherwise transferring any DVD Playback Product” that does not have a physical disk present during playback, the court ordered.

As part of the injunction, Kaleidescape can no longer offer technical support for products that are already in the field, meaning existing servers can receive no updates or repairs (for clarification, read article update).

Kaleidescape has filed an appeal and the company “believes that under California law the injunction order should not come into effect unless the California Court of Appeal affirms Judge Monahan’s decision,” according to a statement issued today.

The company is confident that the injunction will be overturned in an appeals process that could take up to two years.

The DVD CCA licenses the Content Scramble System (CSS) copy-protection scheme required of all (legitimate) DVD players. The organization sued Kaleidescape in 2004, arguing that its servers violate a licensing agreement that expressly prohibits the copying (ripping, archiving) of DVDs.

Kaleidescape has maintained all along that its servers abide by the licensing agreement and, furthermore, that the DVD CCA is so secretive and its contracts so confusing that a licensee cannot precisely interpret them.

For the past 8 years, we’ve been baffled about why this lawsuit ever happened, since our products don’t encourage piracy, but do increase sales of movies. Maybe it’s because the large CE companies in Japan and the big computer companies in the USA, on the board of the DVD CCA, are afraid that Kaleidescape is building a better way to enjoy DVDs and Blu-ray Discs than they are. Imagine a world where Apple wasn’t allowed to build the iPod because Sony wanted a ‘level playing field’ for the Walkman.

Julie Jacobson, recipient of the 2014 CEA TechHome Leadership Award, is co-founder of EH Publishing, producer of CE Pro, Electronic House, Commercial Integrator, Security Sales and other leading technology publications. She currently spends most of her time writing for CE Pro in the areas of home automation, security, networked A/V and the business of home systems integration. Julie majored in Economics at the University of Michigan, spent a year abroad at Cambridge University, earned an MBA from the University of Texas at Austin, and has never taken a journalism class in her life. She's a washed-up Ultimate Frisbee player currently residing in Carlsbad, Calif. Email Julie at [email protected]